Related Irradiates Ruppert Playground to Win Over Pols

As The Observer recently chronicled, the East Side of Manhattan is so starved for parkland, locals will do just about anything to hold onto every blade of grass and monkey bar. At Ruppert Playground, neighbors have been fighting the powerful Related Companies, which is preparing to replace the open space with a new apartment tower possibly reaching 40 stories.

The developer has every right to do so, as it built the playground three decades ago and only had to keep it open through 2008. This has not kept those on the block and their elected officials from fighting the plan, but now Related seems to have found its secret weapon: photon rays!

The group seeking to build the proton facility, New York Proton Center, is a nonprofit corporation backed by a consortium of local hospitals including Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the NYU Langone Medical Center, as well as 21st Century Oncology Inc., a private firm. The group has been searching for a location in Manhattan for well over a year, and last year won preliminary approval from the state Department of Health to build on a site on West 57th Street. Those plans appear to have been shelved, as the group began looking for a new site months ago.

The therapy, which targets cancerous tumors more directly than other forms of radiation therapy, has been growing around the country in recent years. While a treatment center has yet to be built in New York City, a facility is planned for Jersey City, N.J., while another is being built in Somerset, N.J.

Ruffling Ruppert's feathers. (NYC Parks Advocates)

Related is also considering a way to incorporate at least some open space into its plan, which may assuage the neighbor’s concerns. There is the possibility, though, that adding medical facilities could add to the tower’s size, since it might qualify for a community benefits bonus under the zoning code, making this a double deal for Related: a tenant that pleases some opponents while making for a taller, and therefore more valuable, tower.

Comments

Correction for this article: Related Companies did NOT build this playground.

It was built with tax payers dollars via the Housing and Preservation Department government agency. So it was built with money paid by residents of NYC in the 1980’s. It was also a group of local residents who pushed for the funding to build the playround along with choosing a design. Related had noting to do with building the park. In fact another local housing complex, Ruppert House maintained the Playground for over 5 years until HPD desparate to have some one build a luxury apartment complex (Carnegie) across the street included this lot as a throw in along with asking them to maintain the park for 25 years. This all while Ruppert House offered to purchase the park but was rejected. Related Companies took advantage of the city in need for tax revenue at the time and even got long term tax breaks on top of it for taking care of the park.

This is a SICK, cynical ploy. Now, they not only plan to take away a playground, used in large part by low-income teens, they plan to irradiate the neighborhood with 247 proton treatments. ENOUGH. The 99-percent are screwed once again, so some BILLIONAIRE can have his way.